ACCUSED BY PUTIN’S CRONIES
ATTACK Sergei Skripal’s house in Salisbury RUSSIA spied on Sergei and Yulia Skripal for at least five years before they were poisoned, a dossier claimed yesterday.
Russian cyber-specialists also hacked Yulia’s emails, and undercover operatives practised smearing nerve agents on door handles, it added.
Ex-spy Sergei, 66, and daughter Yulia, 33, pictured below, were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury last month.
Yulia has now left hospital. Britain’s National Security Adviser Sir Mark Sedwill revealed the evidence that the Kremlin was “highly likely” to have carried out the attack in a letter to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
Sir Mark said the GRU – Russian military intelligence – had targeted Yulia’s email accounts as far back as 2013. In an account based in part on declassified UK intelligence, he also said Moscow had developed a scheme in the 2000s to train personnel from “special units” in the use of chemical warfare agents.
Among the techniques studied was applying them to door handles, he said.
The strongest concentration of the military-grade Novichok nerve agent found in the Salisbury strike was on the front door handle of Sergei’s home.
Russia’s ambassador to the UK, Alexander Yakovenko, said the claims were a “big surprise”. He also complained that UK authorities had not formally notified them of the allegations.